As a freshman in college, it was a huge adjustment moving away from home and saying goodbye to my friends. We all worried about losing touch with one another and being unable to remain as close as we were during high school. Fortunately, I am still close with all of them. I feel this continued level of connection is greatly because of our use of social networking sites.
By using sites such as Facebook, it is very easy to remain in contact. Not only is it helpful for intrapersonal relationships, but it’s very beneficial in group communication as well. It allows for people to comment on activities between other people and send messages to multiple people at a time. The content put on the Internet becomes extensions of ourselves and allows us to expand our identities. Unfortunately, online profiles only allow us to express ourselves to a certain extent.
We are forced to conform to the specifications of the sites we use, which does not allow for complete displays of our individuality. Though we are given some freedoms such as a profile picture and a status, we are not given the ability to format our pages or add anything not approved by the site. This makes “our” websites less personal and clusters users together in a way that doesn’t allow for true individual expression.
That being said, it is still possible to get your point across through the use of notes and meaningful posts. Unfortunately, society does not always allow us to do so. Even if your profile is put on private, you are still not entirely protected. Others can and will see the content you post which discourages people from sharing personal and intimate thoughts. Without being able to share these deep and clandestine emotions, the full person is not being represented. Instead, a surface-level representation is all that is being seen. This is fine when the site is being used by casual acquaintances, but when friends and family members try to use it in the same way, they are unable to fully capture the essence of their loved one.
Though Facebook may not be the place for divulging personal information, there are sites on the Internet that allow a person’s true personality to be expressed. With the use of blogging websites such as Tumblr and Blogspot users can take advantage of the sites flexible yet simple design. They can add videos, photos and written text to express themselves. Though these pages are just as public, if not more public than profiles on Facebook, they are less connected to the users name, which allows for people to become more open. But, with the gain of personal expression, you lose the sense of connection with others.
Overall, there is not now (and possibly never will be) a way to fully express all facets of our humanity in an online media. Our individuality cannot be fully expressed and the elemental roots of our personalities cannot be seen as they truly are.
I completely agree with you. There is no way we can fully express ourselves on the internet because of the lack of privacy or options of doing so. I found the part where you said that Tumblr and Blogspot lets one express themselves interesting because I have a tumblr page; on my page, I write my thoughts, post pictures that I find interesting or pretty and post audio/video that I enjoy. I like Facebook because I can connect with my friend from high school and friends from college but I like Tumblr because my name is not all over and as you said, not more public. Both are great ways to express yourselves but in different ways. The internet is not a place where you want to share everything about yourself but it is a good place to remain connected and to show your interests. I agree with your response and it was interesting because I never thought of Facebook as being a cluster of users until you mentioned it. I never really noticed the restrictions on it and the fact that your name is all over and you cannot share your most intimate thoughts.
ReplyDelete-Vicky Saperstein
Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteYou make some really good points about social networking and how they are creating the ability for college students like us to communicate with friends that are not necessarily close to us distance wise. I also agree with the points that you made about expression. I wrote in my essay about how Facebook, although having much more users, is lacking in comparison to MySpace when it came to allowing the users to express themselves. The reason why i say that is because i believe MySpace creates many more options for the user to design a web page that is unique. Facebook, however, only uses one template and conforms the user to using the format that they have presented. Yes, there clean look does bring many more people running to create a Facebook page, but is it really a place for the user to express themselves? It's an open ended question, but i believe MySpace does do a great job establishing unique web pages and templates.
I agree with both of you that there is definitely a good sense of communication between friends on Facebook and sites like it, but is the reason they work so well to maintain relationships and not start them because of the fact that these people already know us?
ReplyDeleteI do agree completely that you can't be your complete self online. The complexity of human nature and all the different levels are not even all visible in everyday life so there would be no way for our online selves to portray all of our different sides. Is there even a possible way for us to show another person all the different sides of our personalities?
I can totally agree with what you’re saying. I feel that if we did not have face book I would lose contact with some of my friends. Social Networking sites do in fact bring relationships closer together and also at some points puts a burden on relationships but I feel for me Facebook has totally kept me in close contact with all of my friends. It is true, facebook is not only for intrapersonal relationships but it is very beneficial in communication groups.
ReplyDeleteI think that you have many valid points. Face book has allowed me to stay in contact with my friends back home. I do agree that there are limitations to websites like Facebook that prevent people from truly expressing there thoughts,but I think that rather than relying totally on social networking sites, we should use them in conjunction with actual face to face communication. If people could express all their feelings on Facebook there would be no need for actual one one one communication.
ReplyDeleteI agree with becky on several points. We cant fully expose our selves due to the settings that prohibit us but we can to a certain extent. It is used to connect with people and I have certainly done that with the distance that is put between our physical being, here a college. we arent being represented at full on websites like facebook because it is true you can not see one's emotions or expressions. I also agree with her point in saying that through facebook there is definitely more of a connection to others but not as much as an exposition of our true selves that can be displayed on something like that of a blog.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Becky that Facebook does not allow for individualism, however, I think that people who use facebook are not looking for an individual approach to socializing. Facebook does not have to be a place to show who you truly are and every aspect of your personality because that is what real life is for. I think people are too worked up on developing there facebook persona and not concentrated on who they are in real life. Becky made a good point that people are forced to conform with the way facebook is. We must be careful not to become a generation of people who identify themselves with who they are on facebook rather who they really are.
ReplyDeleteBecky,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. I feel social media sites have allowed me to stay in contact with my close friends from home. It is also very beneficial to group communications as you can plan events, parties, etc..I also agree with your opinion that they sites somewhat limit our expression. They have the cookie cutter formats which make them less personal to use, however you can still be creative through your posts and status updates. I agree with your opinion that it is a great way to express yourself.